i know there are some big fans on this board of firefox and i used to love this browser but the desktop version has been slow for a long time and it hasnt gotten any better. im getting glitches and sometimes random crashes. its overall just feels like a clunky bloated browser and i have just a few extensions.

then i go to use firefox on android and its even worse! slow loading pages and slow loading app. i even used a few spinoff versions ice cat and fennec and just as bad.

it seems like ever since they ousted the founder of firefox its been on the decline ever since. very sad i remember using it before it was named firefox and loving it but that was a long time ago.

ive always kept a copy of firefox on my computer but i think im done with firefox going to stick with chromium and my main and try to find a new secondary browser.

If there are, they should not. Software is a terrible thing to be a fan of and it’s been a source of constant grief among otherwise intelligent people.

I’ve been using Firefox without any of those glitches you mentioned. However I am very conservative in how I use a browser. So, the fact I run only two addons and I don’t get in the habit of leaving the browser opened for extended periods of time or opening more than an handful of tabs, may help explain it. I also don’t have a tendency to visit websites with large amount of client-side scripting. That is, my surfing habits are them too very spartan.

I however not surprised (at all!) you are getting these problems. Firefox has a infamous development history and the organization behind is also not one that is known to be growing in adepts. Quite on the contrary. It’s been downhill for mozilla, for quite some time.

They are trying to save the browser with the upcoming version. Good on them. Hopefully your problems will go away. My guess, they won’t. But I am a miserable old man who is never right about things.

@just, however be very careful when using Dedoimedo as a source… of anything(!)

That place is rife with bad information to the point that referencing it is almost insulting. It’s even been caught on a few occasions giving actual wrong advise to users. As it was the case of this Manjaro article last month, where it takes the author only 4th paragraphs to break the user system.

That said, I do agree to the general principle and sentiment. I just don’t think I would with anything else he had to say. That website is poison.

I really hope Firefox will not die. Currently it is about the only real rival to the Chromium world, and “competition” is just good if the alternative is to have only one family of browsers (chromium).
Actually it is quite strange for the open source world not to have many more choices.

And to be clear, I use both Firefox and Chromium daily and about equally much.

Actually it is quite strange for the open source world not to have many more choices.

There are quite a few open source alternatives. Both Firefox and Chromium spinoffs, but also whole original work. But you are still right. Because in the end, all these browsers together have almost no expression in the market.

The reason is that unfortunately, the internet as a whole hasn’t been playing fair. The way many web developers make use of certain browser exclusive features, means websites work best on this or that browser. Some even disable features if you don;t have the right browser. The ultimate perversion of the purpose of the internet. And you can bet many of those web developers will be holding their hypocrisy high when on the next day you hear them shouting in defense of Net Neutrality.

Another factor is how new technology has been introduced – often in an opaque way that doesn’t facilitate adoption by smaller development teams. This means that web browsers have been becoming increasingly the province of large and organized teams. Close Source has been a particular winner on the internet, such is the sad irony of the open internet.

my experience with firefox is across 3 different hardware setups in my home and office. im glad some people are still getting a good experience from it but i just havent in years but kept holding out hope that they would put it back together.

i think that fact that the founder who got ousted by mozilla decided to go with a chromium spin off over a firefox spin off says a lot. im sure he would have loved to spin off firefox and keep going but i think he knew it was fading.

Firefox became almost unusable especially on Android. It’s slower than other Android browsers, it’s slower that Firefox on computers.

But the worst thing about it is that its syncronization feature works bad. It’s important for me, as I must keep in sync 5 computers, with a dozen of Linuxes on each one, and 4 Android devices. I have about 4000 bookmarks.

The sync between Chromium-Chromium (computers-computers) and Chromium-Chrome (computers-androids) is made instantly. I don’t even notice, at what moment it happens. Once a browser is opened, it already has all stuff in sync.

With Firefox syncronization takes minutes. It often starts not immediately but 4-8 minutes after Firefox is opened. Bookmarks don’t keep the order I’ve disposed them on other device(s) - they are placed in a funny disorder. Some bookmarks get lost. Some old bookmarks, removed a time ago, are found again and added back to Firefox. It’s almost impossible to use.

I unfortunately have to agree with the rant. I’ve been using Firefox as main browser since version 1 I think.

For me it crashes quite regularly too, just random bam boom and sites are gone. Although one has to take this with a pinch of salt when blaming it on FF since I have several add-ons installed.

Add-ons, the way I see it now is that quite some of my add-ons that I used on a daily basis will not be supported in the future anymore because of Mozilla’s one-sided decision. Add-ons WERE the reason I sticked with FF until now. This will not be the case anymore in the future I think.

I’m not going to start about the Android version. I dislike it very much, because it’s slow and underdeveloped. Why doesn’t it get enough privacy features like the desktop version, on a device which actually needs those kind of features way more nowadays? Why I use it? FF Sync, nothing more!

I would not like to see it die either because to be it still is much better (not performance wise) than Chromium alternatives. Just change the management people because they don’t seem to listen to its customers.

The sync between Chromium-Chromium (computers-computers) and Chromium-Chrome (computers-androids) is made instantly. I don’t even notice, at what moment it happens. Once a browser is opened, it already has all stuff in sync.

Thats the truth, and this killing “application” makes google the new apple

Also don’t forget another thing how they forced the Google-like monthly “major” browser update release cycles. It messed up add-ons for me a long time… Lots of people disliked that - obviously poitnless - change. And I still don’t see the advantage of that decision today, except that for them it’s probably good marketing

Well, that was user fault entirely. There is this trend with the idea that constant updates is a good thing. Many users, extend this to all type of software, purposely blind to any development practices currently active and completely unaware (and refusing to be told) of the logical fallacy.

Xfce development cycle, for instance, is often criticized for being… slow. No one cares to define “slow”, much less come forward with what features they think are lacking or behind so that they demand a faster release cycle. likewise no one cares defining what they consider faster, why and how will the team go about increasing their work output. It’s just… slow.

Mozilla simply jumped on the bandwagon. No one can explain why there is a need for calendar updates. But they do it the same, because.

@Krugar I totally get that. And I completely support frequent updates on a monthly basis, and even more frequent if they are security updates, but not when it’s just to keep “innovating” and just to provide more and more features until the software becomes bloated crap. I’m also using Antergos for the reason to have the latest features available to me. Especially for browsers it’s very important to have frequent updates, not only to increase security, but to be up-to-date with the latest standards.

But the thing that was messed up was how they started giving every release a major version number. That’s not functional, that’s marketing. Many add-on devs weren’t ready for that I noticed personally. Before a major version meant it could contain UI changes and therefore potentially mess up add-ons, now it’s just a big number for each (small) change. They pissed off a lot of users that way and now they’re doing it again by going “the Google way” of supporting add-ons. The only good thing about it, but just in its name, is that it’s a standard.

I used to be a strong proponent of Firefox. It will always hold a special place to me because for so long it was without peer. The last couple of years has seen that change in my experience. I have attempted to use it on Windows machines. I have used it on Linux machines running Solus and now Antergos. Chrome/Chromium has been significantly faster on all 3 OS’s for me. Not to mention Firefox has developed a nasty habit of locking up at times. I really want Firefox to be better. I even try the beta versions hoping I see improvement. Any improvements I see end up being negligible and outpaced by Chromium. I now consistently end up going right back to Chromium because Firefox has fallen behind in my experience.